I hesitated for a moment, feeling a little awkward and strange, but I
was soon after as busy as he.
"Not going to be ill, I see," he said suddenly. "You must be on the
look-out another time. Accident--Ike didn't mean it."
I was going to say I was sure of that, when he went on: "So you haven't made friends with Shock?"
"No, sir."
"Well, don't."
"I will not if you don't wish it, sir," I said eagerly.
"Be kind to him, and keep him in his place. Hasn't been rough to you,
has he?"
"Oh no!" I said. "He only seems disposed to play tricks."
"Yes, like a monkey. Rum fellow, isn't he?"
"Yes, sir. He isn't--"
"Bit of an idiot, eh? Oh no! he's sharp enough. I let him do as he
likes for the present. Awkward boy to manage."
"Is he, sir?"
"Yes, my lad. Ike found him under the horses' hoofs one night, going up
to market. Little fellow had crawled out into the road. Left in the
ditch by some one or another. Ike put him in a half-sieve basket with
some hay, and fixed him in with some sticks same as we cover fruit, and
he curled up and went to sleep till Ike brought him in to me in the
yard."
"But where were his father and mother?" I cried.
"Who knows!" said Old Brownsmith, poking at a bit of brown crust in his
basin of milk. "Ike brought him to me grinning, and he said, `Here's
another cat for you, master.' "I was very angry," said the old gentleman after a pause; "but just then
the little fellow--he was about a year old--put his head up through the
wooden bars and looked at me, and I told one of the women to give him
something to eat. After that I sent him to the workhouse, where they
took care of him, and one day when he got bigger I gave him a treat, and
had him here for a day's holiday. Then after a twelvemonth, I gave him
another holiday, and I should have given him two a year, only he was
such a young rascal. The workhouse master said he could do nothing with
him. He couldn't make him learn anything--even his letters. The only
thing he would do well was work in the garden."
"Same as he does now, sir?" I said, for I was deeply interested.
"Same as he does now," assented Old Brownsmith. "Then one day after I
had given him his treat, I suppose when he was about ten years old, I
found him in the garden. He had run away from the workhouse school."
"And did he stay here, sir?"
"No, I sent him back, Grant, and he ran away again. I sent him back
once more, but he came back; and at last I got to be tired of it, for
the more I sent him back the more he came."